Madeline Earp

Madeline Earp is senior researcher for CPJ’s Asia Program. She has studied Mandarin in China and Taiwan, and graduated with a master’s in East Asian studies from Harvard. Follow her on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.

There is cautious optimism among China media watchers this morning over the news
that a deal has been struck between censors and protesting
journalists at China's Southern Weekly
news magazine, which is also known as Southern
Weekend. The journalists will not face reprisals for their protest, and
propaganda authorities will not repeat the editing stunt (which transformed a
pro-reform New Year editorial into a tribute to the Communist Party) that sparked
the dispute, according to The Associated Press.

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A media buyout in Taiwan which would put independent news outlets
critical of China into the hands of a pro-Beijing media tycoon is cause for
concern for the island's press. Jimmy Lai, the outspoken mogul behind Hong
Kong-based Next Media and the Apple Daily
tabloid, is selling his Taiwan holdings to a group of businessmen that includes Tsai Eng-meng, whose China Times Media group is supportive of China, according
to local and international news reports.

Not unusually, an already confusing situation in Tibet just
got worse. Twenty-seven Tibetans have self-immolated in protest against Chinese
this month alone, according to Human
Rights Watch. That's almost one a day. Against this chaotic backdrop, Chinese
authorities have issued an arrest order for a missing monk who helped film a
2008 documentary about life in Tibet, according to his film company, Filming
for Tibet.

CPJ supporters will know that we just honored self-taught Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen with an International Press Freedom Award, recognizing his courage documenting life under Chinese rule with full knowledge that he would face severe repercussions (he is serving a six-year jail term--you can join our petition for his release here). So we've been following with concern the latest reports that his assistant on that project, the monk Jigme Gyatso, has been missing, reportedly detained, since September.

Like many China watchers, we at CPJ have been struggling to
interpret obscure floor
markings and tie
colors on display in Beijing as new Communist Party leaders were appointed
in a rare leadership hand-off today. The names of the top seven are no longer
in doubt. But the real question everyone's asking is: What does it mean (for
press freedom)?

When
a nation's most outspoken journalists are 11-year-olds, is it a good sign for the
future? On the one hand, they might grow up to ask probing questions. On the
other hand, they might end up following the path taken by their older peers and
stick to scripted exchanges.

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It was only a matter of time before Chinese Vice President Xi
Jinping's physical absence from the public view was accompanied by his
disappearance from cyberspace. The characters "Jinping" from his name were
censored today from searches of Sina's microblog service Weibo, according to
the Fei Chang Daoblog. Where else but China does a deficiency of information about
a nonappearance become a story worth deleting?

So is there a story or isn't there? International news reports say that Xi, President Hu Jintao's expected successor, has not been seen in public since Sept. 1, and missed a Sept. 5 meeting scheduled with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That was either a snub, a swimming injury, a stroke, or an assassination attempt, depending on who you talk to. Xi has missed other appointments too, though the full extent of his truancy remains unclear.

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CPJ has been monitoring the investigation into the shooting
attack on Arunachal Times journalist
Tongam Rina outside her office in Itanagar, capital of Arunachal Pradesh state,
which left her hospitalized in critical condition this July.
Her recovery is progressing, slowly but surely. The police inquiry, however, is
not.

Denmark's Prime
Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt is in China this week to meet with top leaders,
according to international news reports. CPJ's Advocacy and Communications
Associate Magnus Ag and Senior Asia Program Researcher Madeline Earp co-wrote
an op-ed calling on Thorning--as she is called in the Danish press--to raise the
issue of press freedom. An edited version ran in the Danish newspaper Politiken today.

Speaking truthfully to China on its repression of human rights can be a tricky endeavor in diplomatic affairs, but Helle Thorning-Schmidt has a prime opportunity to raise press freedom on her trip to China. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not give the issue public priority during their visits earlier this month, but as Thorning meets with top Communist Party leaders and addresses a World Economic Forum meeting in Tianjin, the opportunity must not be wasted.

Indian
Internet advocates and journalists are in an uproar this week over the news
that the government has blocked access to around 300 websites, pages, and
social media accounts in an effort to quell communal violence in the turbulent
northeast. The rationale is that inflammatory online content has fanned
tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in states including Assam, Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra, contributing to a mass exodus from the region and
violence in other cities. The offending content included fabricated images of
violence against Muslims, apparently circulated to incite retaliatory attacks,
according to news reports.